Flow Exporter Impact on Intelligent Intrusion Detection Systems

High-quality datasets are critical for training machine learning models, as inconsistencies in feature generation can hinder the accuracy and reliability of threat detection. For this reason, ensuring the quality of the data in network intrusion detection datasets is important. A key component of this is using reliable tools to generate the flows and features present in the datasets. This paper investigates the impact of flow exporters on the performance and reliability of machine learning models for intrusion detection. Using HERA, a tool designed to export flows and extract features, the raw network packets of two widely used datasets, UNSW-NB15 and CIC-IDS2017, were processed from PCAP files to generate new versions of these datasets. These were compared to the original ones in terms of their influence on the performance of several models, including Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, and Explainable Boosting Machine. The results obtained were significant. Models trained on the HERA version of the datasets consistently outperformed those trained on the original dataset, showing improvements in accuracy and indicating a better generalisation. This highlighted the importance of flow generation in the model's ability to differentiate between benign and malicious traffic.

Data Privacy with Homomorphic Encryption in Neural Networks Training and Inference

The use of Neural Networks (NNs) for sensitive data processing is becoming increasingly popular, raising concerns about data privacy and security. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) has the potential to be used as a solution to preserve data privacy in NN. This study provides a comprehensive analysis on the use of HE for NN training and classification, focusing on the techniques and strategies used to enhance data privacy and security. The current state-of-the-art in HE for NNs is analysed, and the challenges and limitations that need to be addressed to make it a reliable and efficient approach for privacy preservation are identified. Also, the different categories of HE schemes and their suitability for NNs are discussed, as well as the techniques used to optimize the accuracy and efficiency of encrypted models. The review reveals that HE has the potential to provide strong data privacy guarantees for NNs, but several challenges need to be addressed, such as limited support for advanced NN operations, scalability issues, and performance trade-offs.